The Weather Company’s official website Weather.com tracks and maps the progression cold and flu, in addition to its weather reports. In the past, the Cold and Flu Tracker has provided mapping based on data from the Centers for Disease Control. But this year, the Weather.com website and Weather Channelapp is integrating Sickweather’s crowdsourcing and social media-fueled tracking technology.

Sickweather employees pose at the new Sprint Accelerator in Kansas City. From left to… more

GRAHAM DODGE

Sheri Bachstein, vice president of digital product operations said the The Weather Company is excited about the partnership with Sickweather.

“We were looking for a partner that could give us a little bit more of that social insight,” she said. “People are always talking about when they’re sick, what their symptoms are, and it builds that social empathy. We thought that was something important to add to our products to allow for more interaction between our users.”

“This first time in many years that [Weather.com] has trusted anyone other than CDC with this,” Dodge said.”We’re thrilled that it’s Sickweather that is innovating that future.”

Dodge founded Sickweather in 2011 with two friends from high school. The three grew up in the Baltimore area and bought their first server on Craigslist for $400.

Now, the company has eight employees and servers are handling peak user requests of about 30,000 per second. The free Sickweather app has over 225,000 downloads so far.

“Long term, we see ourselves as a WebMD killer of sorts,” Dodge said.

The three founders funded the company on their own the first few years. But to date, Sickweather has also received seed and angel funding from investors like local Paul Palmieri, founder of Millennial Media, but Dodge said in total, it is less than $1 million. The company is currently run mostly using its own revenue and Dodge said he expects to break even for the year.

Dodge said Sickweather is still an early stage operation, but the founders have big goals moving forward.

He said within the next two years, the company plans to grow its user base enough to move away from using social media to help with its tracking and become more reliant on crowd-sourced data. And in the future, the goal is for Sickweather to become a go-to source for timely illness information.

Accepting the award for Tech Startup of the Year, he said, “Elon Muskthinks it’s all going to happen on Mars. We know it’s happening right here in Baltimore.” Then he walked offstage and out of the auditorium to much applause.

After nominations and more than 3,500 votes from the community, the fourth annual Baltimore Innovation Awards were handed out on Friday to close out Baltimore Innovation Week 2016 at the Maryland Institute College of Art’s Brown Center.

The big party, hosted by Technical.ly Baltimore and Innovation Village, featured innovative art, along with new Baltimore-made games and VR. We also took so many selfies with each of the winners onstage.

Here are the winners:

Entrepreneur of the Year: Jasmine Simms, for her work helping other mothers start businesses with Moms as Entrepreneurs and leadership of Scrub Nail Boutique.

Design/Dev Firm of the Year: Fearless Solutions, for work to expand access to a federal program that helps small businesses in Historically Underutilized Business zones and provide environmental education tools.

Sciences Group of the Year: Infinite Biomedical Technologies, for work to improve prosthetics.

Dev Product of the Year: Loople, for continued development of a platform to find food and drink specials, both in Baltimore and D.C.

]]>http://baltimoreangels.com/2016/10/10/here-are-the-winners-of-the-4th-annual-baltimore-innovation-awards-2/feed/0Citelighter Raises $2.1 Million More to Help Students Build Writing Chopshttp://baltimoreangels.com/2016/06/14/citelighter-raises-2-1-million-more-to-help-students-build-writing-chops/
http://baltimoreangels.com/2016/06/14/citelighter-raises-2-1-million-more-to-help-students-build-writing-chops/#respondTue, 14 Jun 2016 17:49:15 +0000http://baltimoreangels.com/?p=418Leave it to writers to describe the pain of their craft. “Writing is easy,” the late New York Times sportswriter, Red Smith once sarcastically quipped, “you just open a vein and bleed.”

Students may find little solace in the fact that professionals also struggle with writing. Empathy alone cannot turn research, outline and notes into prose, and no tool can miraculously transform garbled ideas into elegant sentences. (Headline generators don’t count.)

But at least one company is trying to help students build their writing chops. Citelighter has raised a $2.1 million convertible note from existing investors New York Angel, Baltimore Angels, Harvard Business School Angel and Propel Fund to accelerate its sales and operations. This funding comes after the Baltimore, MD-based startup raised $2 million in what it calls a “Series Seed 2” round in January 2015. The company has now raised a total of $7.1 million.

Since 2011, Citelighter has been developing a “comprehensive writing platform,” in the words of company CEO, Saad Alam. The tool lets teachers break down writing assignments into different steps and track how students progress through them, from the initial research phase to the final draft. After creating a writing prompt, teachers can add additional questions and scaffolds—such as supporting evidence—to guide students in their writing process.

These “digital scaffolds are an important part in helping students organize their thoughts and break down complex ideas into discrete pieces,” Alam tells EdSurge in an interview. As students improve their writing, teachers can reduce the number of scaffolds given in each assignment.

The platform also comes with existing essay templates and rubrics that align to district or state writing standards, as well as a plagiarism checker.

The company also offers students a web toolbar that allows them to save annotate, cite and import their online research into the Citelighter platform, where they can then organize their outlines and drafts. They can also access text and media content that the company recently licensed from Encyclopedia Britannica.

What Citelighter’s users also like is the ability to monitor and intervene during the writing process—not after. Every action a student takes on Citelighter is recorded as one of five “cognitive prints”—capture, comment, organize, write, reading—each of which represents a writing activity. Teachers and students can see the sequence of activities completed at any time during an assignment. This chart can offer insight into students’ approach the writing process, like, for instance when teachers should help pupils who start writing before doing any research.

“Citelighter allows me to see what’s happening from the time they get their writing assignment all the way to when they print it out,” Carla Truttman, an 11th grade social studies and English teacher at Yreka High School in northern California, tells EdSurge. “It allows me to intervene and steer them in the right direction at the moment of writing, and not after the paper is already done.”

This data visualization has also encouraged her students to write more—which, as any teacher or editor will say, is the only proven way to improve writing. “They are constantly going back to their work, polishing, and this makes them better writers in the long run,” Truttman adds. She believes the tool has helped her students shift away from a mindset “where writing is just about getting something done as quickly as possible.”

Alam claims this trend is true across other users as well. In September 2015, he says students using Citelighter were writing roughly 300 words per month. By April, that number had spiked to 1,800. These numbers are currently the company’s main metric for measuring students’ engagement.

Roughly 8,600 schools use Citelighter, from second-grade classrooms to graduate school and MBA programs. Customers include school districts such as Boise School District and the New York City Department of Education. The company says it has signed most of these contracts on three- to five-year deals. “If an education company tells you that you’ll use [something] for a year and your students will miraculously excel, that’s selling snake oil,” says Alam.

Perhaps more importantly, teachers like Truttman say her students have come to appreciate the value of writing—as painful as it still may be. “I appreciate the opportunity that Citelighter provides to students to really find their own voice,” she says. “That’s so critical today where we live in a world that’s all about the sound bite.”

]]>http://baltimoreangels.com/2016/06/14/citelighter-raises-2-1-million-more-to-help-students-build-writing-chops/feed/0Baltimore-area Incubators Team Up for Entrepreneurship Serieshttp://baltimoreangels.com/2016/02/25/test/
http://baltimoreangels.com/2016/02/25/test/#respondThu, 25 Feb 2016 16:01:11 +0000http://baltimoreangels.com/?p=351In March and April, entrepreneurs can take a tour of Baltimore-area incubators, and pick up some knowledge on running a startup in the meantime.

Camp Inc. is a six-stop event that’s set to move through Baltimore, Towson, Baltimore County and Columbia.

The Emerging Technology Centers received funding for the program through TEDCO’s Incubator Assistance Grant, and decided to open it up to the entire area.

“We really wanted to collaborate with other incubators in the area,” said ETC Program Manager Jackie Albright.

The programming will cover topics like crowdfunding and MVPs, and Baltimore Angels will host the final session on angel investing. Albright said the sessions will have a “bootcamp feel,” but attendees don’t have to sign up for all six.

Here’s the schedule:

March 1 at bwtech@UMBC — Business Plan Seminar with Stephen Auvil, Senior VP of Technology Transfer and Commercialization, TEDCO.

]]>http://baltimoreangels.com/2016/02/25/test/feed/0The Angel Investor Tax Credit Bill is Back for Another Try in Annapolishttp://baltimoreangels.com/2016/02/17/the-angel-investor-tax-credit-bill-is-back-for-another-try-in-annapolis/
http://baltimoreangels.com/2016/02/17/the-angel-investor-tax-credit-bill-is-back-for-another-try-in-annapolis/#respondWed, 17 Feb 2016 16:07:22 +0000http://baltimoreangels.com/?p=356For the second straight year, state legislators from Baltimore are backing an effort to create a tax credit for angel investors in Maryland.

The bills, filed by State Sen. Catherine Pugh and Del. Brooke Lierman, would create a tax credit of 50 percent of an investment made in a startup. The bills create a reserve fund to distribute the tax credit, which could be up to $5 million per year, an analysis states.

The difference in this year’s legislation is in the length of the program. The bill calls for an initial three-year pilot.

“If after three years, we’ve seen the results, and it’s as fabulous as I think it’s going to be, we can keep it going,” Lierman told the House Ways and Means Committee during a hearing on Tuesday.

Lierman was joined at the hearing table by tech community members like Emerging Technology Centers President Deb Tillett, Chesapeake Regional Tech Council Executive Director Tami Howie, Startup Maryland’sMike Binko and Social Toaster CEO Brian Razzaque.

To receive the credit, the investor must be accredited with the SEC, and put at least $10,000 (or $20,000 for a married couple filing jointly) toward a company. In turn, the amount of the tax credit is capped at $50,000 for an individual and $100,000 for a couple.

Before the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday, Razzaque talked about raising the Social Toaster’s initial rounds of outside capital. While the company received money from state-backed programs like InvestMaryland, he said angel investors ended up providing the bulk of the capital in the company’s first round. The majority of those investors were from Virginia, Razzaque said.

“We could not have gotten the InvestMaryland dollars or the Propel Fund dollars unless we had received the angel investment first,” he said.

Del. Frank Turner noted existing tax credits in biotech and cybersecurity, as well as other programs in theDepartment of Commerce. Greater Baltimore Committee CEO Don Fry said the Angel Investor Tax Credit widens the types of companies that can receive money. Lierman said the credit also incentivizes earlier stage investment than current state programs offer.

“With the passage of this legislation, when the next ‘hot’ industry comes along, Maryland will be at the forefront of innovation as other states struggle to create a new industry-specific incentive,” Fry wrote in a message distributed Monday. Like last year, the Greater Baltimore Committee is backing the tax credit as its top legislative priority.

Fry also noted that 29 other states have similar tax credits, and that it could also be used as an economic development tool, and provide a way for universities to incentivize tech transfer.

]]>http://baltimoreangels.com/2016/02/17/the-angel-investor-tax-credit-bill-is-back-for-another-try-in-annapolis/feed/0Allovue Raises $5.1M to Help Schools Understand Dollarshttp://baltimoreangels.com/2015/12/16/allovue-raises-5-1m-to-help-schools-understand-dollars/
http://baltimoreangels.com/2015/12/16/allovue-raises-5-1m-to-help-schools-understand-dollars/#respondWed, 16 Dec 2015 16:10:21 +0000http://baltimoreangels.com/?p=359Baltimore, MD – Today, Allovue announced a $5.1 million Series A round of financing. Rethink Education led the investment with participation from existing and new investors, including Red House Education, Serious Change II, Kapor Capital, and Baltimore Angels. The investment brings Allovue’s total funding to $6.9 million and will help the company expand its customer success and leadership teams, as well as accelerate product development. Rethink Education Managing Partner Matt Greenfield and Red House Education Managing Director Steve Kupfer will join Allovue’s Board of Directors.

Allovue launched Balance, their financial analysis platform for K-12 public school districts, this spring and saw rapid adoption in districts across the country, including New Haven Public Schools, Indianapolis Public Schools, Pueblo District 70 in Colorado, and Santa Ana Unified School District. Balance helps districts streamline budgets, vendor transactions, general ledger balances, and other accounting data into a single dashboard. Additionally, education leaders can analyze spending in the context of non-financial metrics, such as attendance rates, student achievement data, and demographic data.

“Effective resource allocation means optimizing limited resources (money, materials, people, time) for the greatest possible outcome. In the case of education, ideally the ‘outcome’ is increased student achievement,” said Allovue CEO Jess Gartner. “At Allovue, we believe student success is the bottom line, which means that every dollar must connect to student achievement. We’re building the tools and providing the training to help make those decisions more data-driven, evidence-based, and easy to understand.”

“One of the things I love about the Allovue team is that they have such a clearly defined mission: they all urgently want to help schools make better spending decisions,” said Matt Greenfield, Managing Partner of Rethink Education. “It is a visceral thing for them: the thought of money being squandered or misallocated nauseates them. And they are hyper-energized by the thought that their tools are going to free up tens of billions of dollars for teaching and learning. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with the Allovue team, which is solving a huge problem that affects every school in the United States.”

New Haven Public Schools in Connecticut was one of Allovue’s first district customers. “We were looking for a way to make our financial information readily available and easily understandable to our school leaders. Allovue made a lot of sense for New Haven Public Schools because their interface is much more user-friendly and intuitive than anything our [finance] system could do out of the box,” said CFO Victor De La Paz. “What every CFO wants is a partner that is going to deliver on their promise, but in a responsive way that honors the local context. The Allovue team are not only experts at what they do, but they take the time to learn about your district’s backdrop. They respond in almost real-time to how Balance can work with your system. That kind of service level is often the difference between a successful implementation and a nightmare investment.”

“Allovue’s offering is well-timed, as school districts nationwide confront rising costs, unpredictable revenues, and critical legislative spending requirements,” said Steve Kupfer, Managing Director of Red House Education. “Balance has already proven effective at changing user behavior and we feel strongly that the product has only scratched the surface of possibilities to optimize resources for student outcomes.”

Allovue recently partnered with Pivot Learning Partners in Oakland, CA, as part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Smarter School Spending initiative, to assist districts with allocations of Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) funds and Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAP). Allovue also partners with Education Resource Strategies in Boston to help districts launch school autonomy models, including Student-Based Budgeting.

The Allovue team, based in Baltimore, MD, is rapidly expanding. They currently have 10 employees, and are projecting an additional 35 hires in 2016. “One of the defining characteristics of the Allovue team is empathy,” said Greenfield. “They have a deep understanding of the school and district leaders whom they serve. And that is why they build products that get used and that produce results that matter.” The company has plans to expand their presence nationally, with new offices in Denver and the Bay Area on the horizon.

The company in September said it expected its planned $750,000 seed round to be oversubscribed.

Baltimore-based Panther Angels led the round. Other investors include the Dingman Angels, Johns Hopkins’ A-Level Capital venture fund, and the Baltimore Angels, who contributed $450,000.

Yet Analytics’ platform can collect large amounts of data across a company’s devices and analyze it in a way that can help clients improve efficiency. The platform helps clients improve efficiency and operations by collecting and analyzing data across the company.

Yet Analytics, led by CEO Shelly Blake-Plock, is based at the Emerging Technology Center at Johns Hopkins Eastern.

]]>http://baltimoreangels.com/2015/11/18/yet-analytics-closes-1-3-million-seed-round/feed/0Baltimore Angels Has Now Invested Over $5 million in Area Startupshttp://baltimoreangels.com/2015/11/03/baltimore-angels-has-now-invested-over-5-million-in-area-startups/
http://baltimoreangels.com/2015/11/03/baltimore-angels-has-now-invested-over-5-million-in-area-startups/#respondTue, 03 Nov 2015 16:16:12 +0000http://baltimoreangels.com/?p=365The Baltimore Angels recently surpassed $5 million in overall investment, according to numbers released by the six-year-old early-stage investment group

The milestone comes as members of the group invested $4 million in startups over the last two and a half years. Since 2012, investor membership has grown from 30 to 50 members. The group meets once a month to hear pitches. Companies are usually after the “friends and family” round, and pre-seed stage.

“We want to lead in Baltimore not only as a premier source of angel investment capital, but also as a mentorship and advisory resource for Baltimore’s many innovators and entrepreneurs,” said Greg Cangialosi, Baltimore Angels cofounder and current co-chairman.

So far in 2015, the Baltimore Angels have invested $1.7 million. Members of the group have invested in the following companies this year: Citelighter, Yet Analytics, Clean Plates, Link Labs, Moonlighting, MPower, Sensics,Sickweather, Solution Design and Virgil Security.

The group also recently hired a full-time employee. Venture for America fellow Michael Tucker, who is a Baltimore native, is now working full-time as director of operations. And they also have a new website.

]]>http://baltimoreangels.com/2015/11/03/baltimore-angels-has-now-invested-over-5-million-in-area-startups/feed/0Baltimore Angels Report Strong Growth in 2015http://baltimoreangels.com/2015/10/22/baltimore-angels-report-strong-growth-in-2015/
http://baltimoreangels.com/2015/10/22/baltimore-angels-report-strong-growth-in-2015/#respondThu, 22 Oct 2015 16:18:12 +0000http://baltimoreangels.com/?p=367The Baltimore Angels, founded in 2009 with the mission to invest profitably while also having a social impact on the Baltimore innovation and start-up community, has continued its growth in both investments and membership over the past year. The group recently surpassed $5M in cumulative investments, $4M of which was invested by the group over the past 2.5 years. $1.7M has been invested in 2015 to date. Furthermore, the group’s membership has grown from 30 members in 2012, to over 50 members today.

“We want to lead in Baltimore not only as a premier source of angel investment capital, but also as a mentorship and advisory resource for Baltimore’s many innovators and entrepreneurs” said Greg Cangialosi, Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of the Baltimore Angels. “We’ve drawn an extremely diverse crowd of angel investors from many facets of both the investment and start-up world. We want to make Baltimorean even more attractive place to innovate, raise money, and successfully launch a company.”

A handful of the Baltimore Angels investments include education technology companies such as Allovue and Citelighter, and big data companies such as Yet Analytics. All three companies are Baltimore based.

Citelighter CEO Saad Alam, whose company moved to Baltimore from New York City in 2013, stresses the importance of access to local capital “Without organizations like the Baltimore Angels, entrepreneurs would be forced to look outside of Baltimore to grow their business. That’s not what Baltimore wants, and that’s not what we, as local entrepreneurs, want”. Yet Analytics CEO, Shelly-Blake Plock, agrees, “The Baltimore Angels play a crucial role for early stage companies seeking to grow to the next level”.

Josh Goldberg, Baltimore Angels member and former founding member of Astrum Solar (later acquired by Direct Energy), is excited about the group’s potential“The Baltimore Angels a proven ability to provide the required early stage capital for the Baltimore areas best of breed companies and will continue to help build Baltimore’s start-up ecosystem”.

The Baltimore Angels focus on early stage technology based companies, run by entrepreneurs with a strong vision, and who are typically just beyond a friends-and-family round of funding. The group meets monthly in downtown Baltimore.